The Sarnia Sting finally discovered the identity of their first-round playoff opponent Friday night, and it's the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. The Owen Sound Attack clinched sixth in the Western Conference with a victory over the Guelph Storm, which means the 'Hounds are locked into the seventh seed and will take on the second-place Sting.

“We knew we were going to get the Soo or Owen Sound,” Sting defenceman Alex Black said. “We've played really well against (the Soo) this year so hopefully we can continue that. Hopefully it will be a good series.”

The best-of-seven series will start next Friday in Sarnia with Game 1 followed by a Game 2 matinee on Sunday, March 27.

“They're a young, skilled team,” Sting defenceman Jakob Chychrun pointed out. “They play with the puck really well, they have a good breakout, they've played us well all year. It's going to be a good match-up for us. Obviously you never want to look past the first round or anything, it's going to be big for us to just focus on the game-to-game things we're going to have to do to get past the Soo.”

The conference quarter-final will have a deeper meaning for Anthony Salinitri as the forward was traded from Sault Ste. Marie to Sarnia in January 2015 for long-time Sting blueliner Anthony DeAngelo.

“It's a big match-up for me and the team,” Salinitri said. “Them being my old team, it's exciting playing against them but more importantly it's a good match-up for us, I think we've done really well against them this year and we've got the team to pretty much beat anyone. They're our first opponent and we're looking forward to moving past them.”

Meanwhile, Sarnia is trying to avoid looking beyond its final two contests of the regular season prior to the post-season commencing.

“Yeah, it's hard to keep the guys focused but we just want to make sure we have very good details and a lot of hard work,” head coach Derian Hatcher said.

“It kind of is,” Black agreed, “just because these games don't really mean much, but they do mean a little bit to us as an organization because we could set a few records, so we're going to go in and try to win all three.”

Despite resting some key players – Travis Konecny, Matt Mistele, Kevin Spinozzi, and goalie Charlie Graham sat out of Friday's 5-2 victory in Kitchener against the Rangers – the team still has something to play for as it is within reach of setting the franchise's all-time record for wins and points. The 2002-03 Sting won 41 games and earned 90 points – in the pre-shootout era, no less – and now with a record of 41-18-5-2 for 89 points this squad has a shot at being labelled the most productive regular-season version of the Sting ever.

“We just touched on it in the room actually,” Chychrun said. “Obviously it'd be pretty special to be a part of something that big and it's definitely a goal we're going to work towards.”

Ryan McGregor had two goals and Nikita Korostelev, Salinitri and Brandon Lindberg also scored against the Rangers while Darby Llewellyn and David Miller answered for the home side at Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

Sting call-up goalie Aidan Hughes earned his second OHL victory, this time against Rangers netminder Luke Opilka. In addition to Hughes, Sarnia Legionnaires' Jacob Stos, Derrick Johnson and Brock Perry, a Sarnia native, played against Kitchener. Perry and Johnson both made their OHL debuts and Johnson picked up an assist.

“It's a pretty good feeling, a little nervous” said Perry, who experienced OHL preseason action with the North Bay Battalion last fall. “That (experience) has helped me out a lot, and I had a decent year for junior B.”

Sarnia returns to action Saturday night in Saginaw before shifting home to host the Windsor Spitfires in the season finale Sunday at 7:05 p.m. at the Sarnia Sports and Entertainment Centre.

NOTES

In addition to the healthy scratches, injured Sting Justin Fazio, Patrick White, Connor Schlichting and Sam Studnicka sat out. More players will be rested over the team's final two games, Hatcher said. Kitchener was without Brian Brosnan, Frank Hora, Dmitrii Sergeev and Jeremy Bracco.